Friday, July 3, 2015

Make your voice heard: More world heritage sites in danger of being lost

The World Heritage
Committee has inscribed two sites in Yemen on the List of World Heritage in Danger:
the Old City of Sana’a and the Old Walled City of Shibam.

The Old City of Sana’a sustained serious damage due to armed conflict in the
country. The neighbourhood of al Qasimi near the famous urban garden of
Miqshamat al Qasimi sustained particularly serious damage. The 12th century
al-Mahdi Mosque and surrounding houses have also been affected and the majority
of the colourful, decorated doors and window panes characteristic of the city’s
domestic architecture have been shattered or damaged.

The World Heritage Committee voiced concern over the damage inflicted to an
Islamic city of great historic and heritage importance.

Situated in a mountain valley at an altitude of 2,200 m, Sana’a has been
inhabited for more than 2,500 years. In the 7th and 8th centuries the city
became a major centre for the propagation of Islam. Its religious and political
heritage can be seen in 103 mosques, 14 hammams and over 6,000 houses, all
built before the 11th century. Sana’a’s many-storeyed tower-houses built of
rammed earth add to the beauty of the site, inscribed on the World Heritage
List in 1986.

The Committee also decided that the Old Walled City of Shibam was under
potential threat from the armed conflict, which compounds safeguarding and
management problems already observed at the site. The Committee therefore
decided that also placing it on the List of World Heritage in Danger could help
reinforce international mobilization for the safeguarding of the site.

Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam is one of the
oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical
construction. Its impressive tower-like structures rise up from a cliff and
have given the city the nickname of ‘the Manhattan of the desert’. It was inscribed
on the World Heritage List in 1982.

The 39th session of the World Heritage Committee started on 28 June and will
continue till 8 July under the chair of Maria Bohmer, Minister of State at the
German Federal Foreign Office and member of the Bundestag. –End-